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Santa Clara approves design work for 119 EV chargers, pauses public installations pending updated strategy
Summary
Council approved a $1.347 million contract to design citywide EV charging (119 locations), with most capacity earmarked for municipal fleet charging; council amended staff’s plan to require load‑management features and paused installation of public chargers until a refreshed public charging strategy is completed.
The Santa Clara City Council authorized design work for a citywide EV charging deployment on Wednesday, approving a $1.347 million agreement with Blair Church & Flynn to design chargers at city facilities, libraries and other sites.
Staff said the program envisions 119 chargers overall, roughly 80% for municipal fleet vehicles and 20% for the public. Acting Assistant City Manager Ken Lee told the council the design contract focuses on meeting fleet needs first: “The vast majority of our public chargers are Level 2; for many municipal pool vehicles a Level 2 overnight charge is appropriate,” he said.
Council members pressed staff on several technical and policy points — whether sites should receive DC fast chargers (Level 3), how to use load‑balancing software to reduce electrical upgrade costs, and whether public chargers should be priced to recover overhead. Council Member Jane secured a written commitment that staff will evaluate load‑management solutions and monitor utilization; Council also voted to pause the public‑charging tranche in the contract while staff refresh the city’s public charging strategy. The full motion to approve the contract with those amendments passed unanimously.
Reena Brio, the city’s sustainability and economic‑development officer, said the procurement will allow fleet electrification work to proceed while the city updates its public‑charging policy: “Our priority is to ensure fleet readiness while we revisit public‑charging needs in light of market changes.”
The design contract is for professional services only; installations and construction will be a later procurement and will return to council for approvals as required.
